In a recent Reddit AMA, Green Party Presidential candidate, Jill Stein was asked about the topic. Here is her reply:

I don’t know if we have an “official” stance, but I can tell you my personal stance at this point. According to the most recent review of vaccination policies across the globe, mandatory vaccination that doesn’t allow for medical exemptions is practically unheard of. In most countries, people trust their regulatory agencies and have very high rates of vaccination through voluntary programs. In the US, however, regulatory agencies are routinely packed with corporate lobbyists and CEOs. So the foxes are guarding the chicken coop as usual in the US. So who wouldn’t be skeptical? I think dropping vaccinations rates that can and must be fixed in order to get at the vaccination issue: the widespread distrust of the medical-indsutrial complex.

Vaccines in general have made a huge contribution to public health. Reducing or eliminating devastating diseases like small pox and polio. In Canada, where I happen to have some numbers, hundreds of annual death from measles and whooping cough were eliminated after vaccines were introduced. Still, vaccines should be treated like any medical procedure–each one needs to be tested and regulated by parties that do not have a financial interest in them. In an age when industry lobbyists and CEOs are routinely appointed to key regulatory positions through the notorious revolving door, its no wonder many Americans don’t trust the FDA to be an unbiased source of sound advice. A Monsanto lobbyists and CEO like Michael Taylor, former high-ranking DEA official, should not decide what food is safe for you to eat. Same goes for vaccines and pharmaceuticals. We need to take the corporate influence out of government so people will trust our health authorities, and the rest of the government for that matter. End the revolving door. Appoint qualified professionals without a financial interest in the product being regulated. Create public funding of elections to stop the buying of elections by corporations and the super-rich.

Gretel, Did you read her full comment above? She described the tremendous benefits of vaccinations, but said the public will not trust them if we continue to let industry lobbyists regulate vaccinations–if we continue to let “the foxes guard the henhouse.”

What she is doing here is trying to keep two groups of people happy. She knows she has anti-vaxxer supporters in the Green party and she doesn’t want to lose them. But that position is also ridiculous and she would alienate everyone else if she was openly anti-vax. So what she does is: cast doubt on vaccines, which satisfies her supporters, while not explicitly coming out against them, so that she isn’t exposed to criticism.

Trump did pretty much the same thing on gay marriage. He wanted to votes from social conservatives, but he didn’t want to be openly anti-gay. So what did he do? He said he thought the states should decide.